Warning Against the New Colonisation of Africa

South Africa's president Thabo Mbeki has warned fellow African leaders to "guard against sinking into a 'colonial relationship' with China as Beijing expands its push for raw materials across the continent" reports Reuters. In a speech to the South African Students Congress Mbeki is quoted as saying that African countries run the risk of being condemned to underdevelopment by merely being a source of raw materials and getting stuck in "an unequal relationship", as had developed between African countries as colonies and colonial powers. Mbeki warned there was the potential for the relationship between China and the African continent to "indeed be a replication of that colonial relationship."

People's Today Online quotes Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang as saying in response that the "cooperation between China and Africa is mutually beneficial and aims to achieve a win-win outcome." Interestingly, the report in Business Day also quotes Mbeki as saying "China can not only just come here and dig for raw materials and then go away and sell us manufactured goods. Therefore they took a decision they must work with the African continent in order to develop [its] manufacturing capability."

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• Reuters • Business Day • People's Daily Online • BBC News